Standalone Blog Pages

April 13, 2012

Family Research Council Threatens Boycott Of EA Games Due To LGBT Characters

Florida Family Association (With Only 1 Member) Started Boycott Threat

Electronic Arts (EA), the Redwood City, California developer of video games has been targeted by
the Florida Family Association (FFA), and the Family Research Council
(FRC), for including LGBT characters in their games. According to the
trade industry website gamesindustry.biz, the company has received
thousands of emails and letters protesting their inclusion of same-sex
couples in popular game titles Mass Effect 3 and Star Wars: The Old Republic.EA
has publicly stated that they will not bow to the pressure being
exerted by these extremist groups, and they will not change the content
of their games.In December of 2011, Zack Ford at Think Progress wrote about the ant-gay Florida Family Association. Zack wrote:

The
Florida Family Association (FFA) has attracted national
attention.......Claiming a membership of 35,000 individuals, FFA’s only
paid staff member is its president, David Caton, and it is not
affiliated with any national organizations.

FFA is an organization devoted to manufacturing faux outrage.

Tony
Perkins and FRC is an organization that I’m very familiar with - and
the Southern Poverty Law Center certified them as an anti-gay hate
group - so we know where they stand. It’s no surprise that FRC is
involved in this campaign to threaten and discredit EA, because that’s
what they do, and their bark is often more rabid than their bite. In the story posted on the games industry website, James Brightman wrote:

"Every
one of EA's games includes ESRB content descriptors so it's hard to
believe anyone is surprised by the content. This isn't about protecting
children, it's about political harassment," Jeff Brown, VP of corporate
communications told us.

"EA
has not been pressured by any groups to include LGBT characters in our
games. However, we have met with LBGT groups and sponsored industry
forums to discuss content and harassment of players in online forums. In
short, we do put options for same-sex relationships in our games; we
don't tolerate hate speech on our forums," Brown added.

We
had suspected that perhaps Focus on the Family, led by James Dobson,
was somehow involved, but as it turns out, many of the letters have been
coming from Florida, and it's rather apparent based onthis call to action for Star Wars that the Florida Family Association is directing a campaign against EA because of the same-sex relationship content.

The Family Research Council, led by Tony Perkins, isalso involved. "In a new Star Wars game, the biggest threat to the empire may be homosexual activists!" said Perkins.

This
is much ado about nothing - and it’s gratifying to know that Electronic
Arts will not bend to any pressure from these right wing extremist
groups. Retailers like Wal-Mart and Target could learn something from
EA.On the popular technology website CNET, Dara Kerr wrote about this story yesterday. She says:

"There
were no LGBT [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender] characters in any of
the Star Wars movies," the Florida Family Association declared on itsWeb site.
"So if BioWare, the maker of Star Wars video games, adds LGBT
characters for kids to select as their action character it could be
something like Darth RuPaula, a combination of Darth Vader, one of the
most popular Star Wars characters, and RuPaul, the renown transgender
cross dresser."

However,
EA has said it has no plans to eliminate any of its characters or
censor any of its games. EA is a wildly popular game maker, whose
repertoire includesSimCity,The Simpsons,
and Mass Effect. Star Wars: The Old Republic has sold more than 2
million copies. By making the decision to add same-sex characters to its
online games, EA has become a pioneer in both the gaming community and
the gay rights movement.

It’s
surprising that these right-wing extremists are taking on a video game
manufacturer during a presidential election year. They read the same
news reports we all do, so they know that Romney doesn’t stand a chance
to win in November, and their chosen candidate ‘Sicko’ Santorum has left the race because he wasn't going to win the primary in his own home state of Pennsylvania. Tony Perkins and his minions must be bored and itching for a fight.I have to cheer Electronic Arts for sticking to their guns, and flipping the bird to these right-wing anti-gay extremists.FRC and FFA should be spending their time reading the study about anti-gay activists.

People
in denial about their sexual orientation may lash out because gay
targets threaten and bring this internal conflict to the forefront, the
authors write.

AFA and FRC are baring their internal conflict for all the world to see. Do you want to break the news to these homo haters?